15 wedding industry pros reveal their worst bridezilla horror stories

Weddings bring people together to eat, drink, and be merry. But what is it about weddings that sometimes bring out the worst in people? While groomzillas are a very real phenomenon, bridezillas are a terrifying product of a day that — in theory — should be about love.

A bride refused to allow anyone to get married that entire year.

"Apparently it was her special year and not just a day." Mint Images/Getty Images

"A bride once called having a meltdown because her friend got engaged as well and was planning to get married in the same year as she was ... Apparently it was her special year and not just a day. She threw a huge fit that this girl was only getting married to 'steal her thunder.' Yes, because no one else can have a life at the same time as you. Her friend's date wasn't even in the same month or season. Hers was in October and her friends was in June .... Brides sometimes don't think rationally." — Redditor sillykitty1990

A bride was upset that her maid-of-honor was pregnant.

"A bride threw a huge fit about her 'selfish sister stealing her spotlight' because her MOH/sister got pregnant after the engagement but before the wedding date was set. She was seven months pregnant in her MOH dress and the bride felt she was 'grabbing too much attention.'" — Redditor Anonymous

A bride wanted her bridesmaids' hair to "look uglier."

"When I came on-site for the wedding, I was able to locate the bride by the sound of her screaming at her hair/makeup artists. By the time I came into the bridal suite, she had switched to screaming at her bridesmaids for looking prettier than her and made them change their hairstyles to 'look uglier.'" — Redditor retrofuturist

A bride sued the florist because it rained.

Rain is no one's fault. Andre Penner/Associated Press

"One I remember was a woman who was very sweet up until after her wedding. We had to substitute peonies because they weren't in season and to get them she would need to pay a ton, so she opted for garden roses instead. It rained on her wedding day, not like 'maybe we should make a rain call,' — like tornado sirens and shit falling over. The power went out and the hotel used all of their backup generators to light her ceremony and reception for the three hours the power was out.

"None of that was her fault, but none was ours or the hotel's either. Nature gonna nature. She tried to sue not only us for 'fucking up her bouquet' but also the hotel for not letting her ceremony be outside and for not letting her ceremony be in 'the prettiest area' of the inside of the hotel.

"[The bride decided] to blast us on every social media medium she could. Thankfully we threatened to sue her back for defamation and she removed them all." — Redditor neonchinchilla

The bride did the Hava Nagila alone.

"If you've ever been to a wedding, you know that weddings run behind schedule. This bride was adamant that everything be exactly on time. Of course, it being a wedding, everything was running behind about 30 minutes. At 7:55 pm, she could no longer handle that the wedding was running late and decided to skip ahead to the Hora (aka the traditional Jewish wedding dance). The Hora was scheduled for 8:00 pm. We (the band) and the wedding planner suggested that we should not skip ahead, but she was having none of it. With her face red with effort, she screamed at us that the Have Nagila would start at 8:00 pm and not a minute later. Well, she was paying us, so we did what we were told.

"We started our Hava Nagila at precisely 8:00 pm. The guests rose and began to form a circle as they have done countless times before. But something was amiss — the groom was nowhere to be found. The bride was alone in the center of the circle. As if on autopilot, the guests danced and sang on while the bride's expression changed from confused, to horrified, to hysterical. It was a train wreck. They finished the dance without the groom ever arriving. The bride was sobbing uncontrollably." — Redditor Jawhun.

The bride demanded she was a size four and threw a fit when her dress didn't fit.

"Sizing was a nightmare. Sandra came in to try on gowns. She tried on the large sample dress, had it pinned to see how it would look on her if it was her size. She said this was it, so my mom took her measurements, and figured out what size she needed to order.

"My mom told her that her dress will be a size eight based on her measurements; Sandra threw a fit. 'That's impossible! All of my other dresses are size four! I have been a size four since I was 14. I am not an eight! Order me a four!'

"My mom would explain how sizes vary from designer to designer and that, while she may be a four normally, with the designer of her dress her measurements are considered an eight, and it's just a number, and if it's too big it can be taken-in, but a four couldn't be taken-out ... Sandra took none of that. Despite all the protest, she demanded a four.

"A couple weeks before the wedding her size four dress arrived. It wouldn't zip (duh). Bride had a meltdown. Mom had to apologize and reorder a larger dress at the bridal salon's expense." — Redditor fieldofdaisies4

A bride left terrible online reviews for the vendors.

LEaving bad reviews is not a good look. iStock

"I own my own bartending company … the bride and all the guests raved about how great we were all night, then the very next day the bride shat all over my company online unless I returned $450+ dollars. I used screenshots, pictures and copies of the contract to convince the websites to have the reviews removed…

"I checked her account and it seems as though she made the account just to give bad reviews to all of the vendors from her wedding in return for refunds. She clearly planned a wedding she couldn't afford and ended up with buyer's remorse. You really can't buy class." — Redditor NegroConFuego

A bride asked for a free dress because she was "really pretty."

"A girl asked me if I would send her an $1,800 dress for free because 'I'm really pretty and I'll send you pictures of me wearing it at an event.'" — Redditor Deconstructress

A bride assaulted the shuttle driver.

"The worst was when a bride was so upset that she couldn't fit all of her bridesmaids on one shuttle back from the reception that she tried to physically assault the driver. He left her on the side of the road when she tried to bite him." — Redditor m30w7h

The bride was awful to her in-laws and made the photographer cry.

"I had a bride that openly spoke utter and complete s--- about the groom's family (in front of his face). She would say that they were 'crazy, unclassy and annoying,' and come the wedding, her family was actually the hardest family I ever had to deal with, and the groom's family was absolutely lovely. On top of all this, the bride yelled at all of the vendors all day, resulting in the videographers leaving after just one hour of shooting, the photographer cried in the bathroom, and the groom and the bride's cousins apologized to me for her behavior all night." — Redditor Toronto_Planner

A bride asked a nearby airport to cancel all flights during her ceremony.

"Not a coordinator but worked at a venue that had weddings every weekend. It was located about 15 minutes from a large international airport, which was very convenient for guests but a big problem for one of the brides. She told the coordinator to make sure that no flights would be passing overhead during her ceremony. Okay, so, we'll just call every airline and have them delay all flights for you." — Redditor mudcatversion1

A bride demanded food she hadn't paid for.

Cathal McNaughton/Reuters

"The bride that started demanding we serve the same food at her no-frills, bargain wedding reception, as she'd seen being served at the spared-no-expense, super-rich reception being held in another ballroom. She'd paid for a cocktail reception — hors d'oeuvres, drinks, a champagne toast, and a pretty basic wedding cake — but was suddenly screaming at the serving staff to get some 'real' food in there for her guests. When they refused, she actually followed one back to the kitchens, and was trying to load up trays herself. We ended up placating her with some extra hors d'oeuvres, but she had the gall to complain to my bosses about the whole night." — Redditor casinogirl2001

A bride wanted a millennial pink wedding dress … the morning of her wedding.

"The bride that decided the morning of her wedding, that she just hated her dress, and expected me to fix that for her. She had seen pictures of Gwen Stefani's wedding dress, and wanted me to either dip-dye her David's Bridal Clearance dress ombre pink, or just procure a couture dress for her. When I told her neither was possible, she screamed, 'What am I even paying you for?' and threw her shoes at me. She did eventually get married in the offending dress, but looked miserable the whole time." — Redditor casinogirl2001

A bride gave every wedding guest an ultra-specific dress code.

"The bride emailed the dress specifications to all the ladies:

Blush/Champagne/Gold/Taupe family

Floor length dress

Can be shimmery/sparkly/sequined

Column/empire waist/sheath shape — no mermaid style

No white/gray/ivory/silver

No color blocking

Try to stay away from lace

*See bottom of email for inspiration photos

"Should I note that these women are not in her wedding party at all, but guests?" — Redditor madmaxine.

A bride ignored her brother's heat stroke.

"This one self absorbed [bride] sat in her suite making her guests sit outside in the sun for a full hour while she fussed with her makeup and jewelry, which had already been done for some time … When her aunt came in and gently reminded her that she was holding everyone up, she threw a mini tantrum and complained, 'It's my day and everyone's forgetting it's supposed to be about ME!' When she finally deigned to appear, her brother (a groomsman) passed out from heat exhaustion. The officiant leaned in asked if she wanted to take a break while he was tended to and she said, 'Nah, just keep going, he's fine.' At the end, as she's recessing down the aisle, you could see the ambulance arriving in the background." — Redditor Doobie-Keebler.